Imitation is the sincerest form of flattery, right?

My daughter is turning 5 next week. In less than a month, I'll be registering her for Kindergarten in the fall. A hypothetical (the k-12 school system) will become a reality, with one child firmly entrenched within it.

I know it's a little early, but I am terrified. I compare my daughter's love of learning and discovery with my Freshmen's...indifference to outright hostility to learning and it sends me into a bit of funk; I am dreading the day when that light behind her eyes in extinguished and she becomes, well, what some of my students have become.

Then again, I see that light come back with the peer-driven learning class, so there’s that. 13-15 years from now. If she gets me for a teacher.

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She’s turning 5, which also means there will be a party. The sheer amount of crap I have to buy for this party is staggering. Decorations! Goody bags! Food! Treats! Games! Presents! And more presents! Some of this smacks of “keeping-up-with-the-Jones” as I know what her classmates parties have looked like. I didn’t get invited to parties when I was a kid. I didn’t have birthday parties either. She has more friends now than I ever did until high school (cue violins). But we live in a small town, I already have a bit of a reputation as that mom and I want to make sure that my kids aren’t punished because I’m socially maladjusted. So a birthday party with all the bells and whistles I can afford (no, you can’t have a bouncy castle) it is.

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I finally read The Hunger Games. Loved every minute of it (which, admittedly, weren’t very many). Will be rewarding myself with the next book after grading.

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Even though professionally 2012 is shaping into the best year professionally for me yet, I can’t help but feel a little jealous at all the new and exciting new job announcements I keep seeing pop up on Twitter and in my FB timeline. I am genuinely happy for everyone, but the limited nature of my current position seems stands in stark contrast.

Having said that, I just put in my book orders for the online course I’m teaching in the fall in Canadian Literature. I’m particularly glad that I didn’t throw away/sell/give away all of my Canadian Literature books in a fit of resignation. Revisiting all of these materials is making me excited for the fall semester to come. I’m going to be teaching literature again! Canadian literature! Finally, a subject where I don’t feel continually behind the eight-ball.

If this is successful, I am making long-term plans to propose a course in Women’s Studies and Digital Humanities. We have an annual Art/Media/Writing contest that rewards artists “that strive to offer original insights and/or novel approaches to problems in Women’s Studies.” Imaging half of the semester looking at issues of gender and digital humanities, then learning and building something either as individuals or as a group? The wheels are turning in my brain.

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Speaking of Digital Humanities, did you see that the first issue of the Journal of Digital Humanities[2] is live? It is. Take a look. There’s some great stuff.